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This is, I suppose, the latest news on Anna HazareCopied from New York Times today (26 03 2012. -bhuban Indian Activist Attempts Revival of Antigraft Drive European Pressphoto Agency The Indian activist Anna Hazare during his one-day hunger strike in New Delhi on Sunday. By JIM YARDLEY Published: March 25, 2012 RECOMMEND TWITTER LINKEDIN SIGN IN TO E-MAIL PRINT REPRINTS SHARE NEW DELHI — The activist Anna Hazare returned to the spotlight with a protest on Sunday, wearing his familiar white Gandhian cap and sitting cross-legged for a one-day hunger strike against corruption. The crowds again chanted his name and again wore “I Am Anna” hats, as his cohort of advisers shouted slogans against the government. The scene and the outrage evoked the events of last year, when Mr. Hazare led anticorruption protests that attracted a huge outpouring of supportand, in the process, rocked Indian politics. But Mr. Hazare, having endured a few difficult months, is suddenly a political question mark, the potency of his protest movement no longer certain. So Sunday’s rally represented something of a comeback attempt. “I am ready to fight again,” Mr. Hazare declared at the end of Sunday’s rally, as his followers cheered. “We want to change the country. This is the only opportunity we have.” Indians remain furious about corruption. The question is whether Mr. Hazare remains the man best capable of channeling that public fury into action. Sunday’s crowds did not match the large turnouts of last year, when Mr. Hazare held a 12-day hunger strike at Ramlila Maidan, a different protest site in New Delhi. But as many as 10,000 people were on hand on Sunday as Mr. Hazare and his advisers staged a one-day fast to honor people from around India, including a police officer, who have been killed while trying to expose corruption. “We are here just to support Anna and to show our solidarity against corruption,” said A. K. Singh, a teacher, who attended the rally at Jantar Mantar, a famous protest site in New Delhi, and predicted that Mr. Hazare’s movement would keep growing. “You will find that within two or three years, the situation in India will change.” By returning to Jantar Mantar, Mr. Hazare was trying to rekindle the public passions that erupted last year when he began his pressure campaign to create an independent anticorruption agency, known as a Lokpal. Last April, Mr. Hazare’s protests at Jantar Mantar drew such big crowds that government leaders invited him to attend meetings of the special parliamentary committee that is drafting Lokpal legislation. Mr. Hazare and his advisers attended the meetings but soon criticized the government’s final bill as toothless and announced new protests in New Delhi for last August. In August, when the police jailed him for lacking a permit, outraged crowds swarmed the jailhouse. Mr. Hazare eventually emerged from jail as a national figure, buoyed by hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated across India. His 12-day hunger strike convulsed the political landscape and ended only after parliamentary leaders approved a resolution committing to the creation of an anticorruption agency. Yet more recently, Mr. Hazare has come under increasing criticism. His initial appeal was rooted, partly, in the avowed apolitical stance of his anticorruption campaign. But last fall, after his hunger strike, Mr. Hazare’s team campaigned in a local race against the candidate of the Indian National Congress Party. They said they were opposing the candidate to press the national coalition government led by the Congress Party into enacting Lokpal legislation. But the move backfired, as Congress Party leaders painted Mr. Hazare as a political opportunist whose real purpose was to help the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. Others linked Mr. Hazare to right-wing Hindu groups. Mr. Hazare and his supporters denied the charges, but their image was sullied. They also made strategic mistakes. Parliament’s promise in August to pass a Lokpal bill led to a showdown during the winter session of Parliament in December. Mr. Hazare announced that he would lead new protests, centered in Mumbai, during the winter session, even as the legislation was passed in Parliament’s lower house, stirring some public optimism. But the Mumbai protests fizzled with low turnout. Mr. Hazare called off the hunger strike, citing poor health, and the Indian news media ridiculed the Mumbai effort as a “flop show.” “I felt like there was an element of fatigue,” said Mayank Gandhi, an organizer of the Mumbai rally, explaining why the public did not respond. “There was no emotional current like in August, after the jailing of Anna.” Mr. Hazare’s team was reeling. He was hospitalized with a chest infection. His top adviser, Arvind Kejriwal, published a public letter, declaring that the movement was at a crossroads and needed public guidance, a sentiment shared by many others who had been uncomfortable with the shift toward more overt politicking. “We need to really think, where are we going?” Mr. Gandhi said in a January interview. “Are we going in the right direction?” With Mr. Hazare convalescing, several of his top advisers decided on a barnstorming tour during the recent elections in five states. They held nonpartisan rallies to encourage people to vote against corrupt candidates. Without Mr. Hazare’s presence, this road show had mixed success; at a February rally in Fatehpur, in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, local organizers recruited schoolchildren to fill out the crowd for an appearance by two top advisers, Kiran Bedi and Manish Sisodia. Mr. Hazare has sometimes been dismissed as little more than a figurehead, with his advisers making the crucial decisions, yet he is clearly the attraction needed to draw public interest. Today, Parliament has still not passed Lokpal legislation; it is pending in the upper house of Parliament after lawmakers allowed the winter session to expire without a vote. The bill could be taken up again in April. On Sunday, Mr. Hazare repeated his criticism of the government, calling for a strong Lokpal, but by highlighting the slain anticorruption workers, he also was signaling a broader focus for his movement. He promised to keep pushing for a Lokpal but also to lead a public campaign for a “right to reject,” which would allow voters to cast a ballot against all the listed candidates. He also pledged to take up the issue of land seized from farmers for development. Mr. Hazare’s skeptics say that his moment has come and gone. His supporters disagree. “We are not interested in creating a political party, nor will we campaign against a political party,” said Rajinder Kumbhaj, 63, who traveled several hours from the city of Jaipur to attend the Sunday rally. “We just want to make people more aware. This agitation is becoming more mass-based. It is spreading more and more.” Hari Kumar contributed reporting _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
